When commonsense goes out the window in an environment that is our kids' first community that is not hand-picked; how are kids to learn commonsense? I support our schools. Lord knows they have a tough job, but when they protect their "power over" a situation rather than teaching and nurturing a critical thought process, respect for others, meeting kids where they are rather than where the liability or PC "should be" kids learn. They learn to be inauthentic, blindly obedient, to care less for both their own place in the world and others'. Care less. It's not PC to grab a kid by the ear any more. Having said all that, I sense the problem here was a lack of time. From the article the teacher taught the 3rd class of the day, varied it a bit, ran out of time at the end of class to process what had just happened. Part of running out of time could be the naughty atmosphere that happens as class is about to dismiss. The solution may be a strong student governance program, a bottom up institutionally respected peer counseling and conflict resolution process that gets referrals for exactly this kind of "growing up" issue that will never be perfect but can teach without suspensions, detentions and the various shamings that ensue without truly understanding what happened. Lack of understanding disciplinary action can be traumatic. This kid sounds far more sophisticated than that, he tweaked the administrations noses well. However, another kid may make a more honest mistake.

You nailed both of these situations - one where the commissioners ignored a citizen and caused an unnecessary outcome, and one where the school officials overreacted and students learned nothing. Where are the Mr. Vanderpools today?